I think this game is fantastic. Here are two ideas that might make it even better.
First idea: HUD Widgets
The other night I was on a long exploration marathon when I suddenly remembered I needed to check the time and get to bed at a decent one. The thought hit me that it'd be cool to have a clock on the HUD. Prior to that night I was in combat and thought the HUD definitely needs numerical angle indicators for ship rotation, and possibly even indicators to show the status of each thruster. This would help with no-flight assist combat, and let's be honest, in real life there would be a wealth of such information in a space fighter.
Then I realized that player modification could be a cool feature. I understand this could be a monumental effort, but what if selected ship and game information could be provided to players via a read-only interface so that players could create their own HUD "widgets"?
Community widget creations could make the above two ideas (clock and thruster/orientation info) a relatively simple creation for players. As can be seen from the mods world, community development always creates great ideas, so I wouldn't be surprised if HUD enhancements were so amazing that they actually went beyond convenience and improved core gameplay. Imagine how much more competitive PvP could be if an indicator showed relative power from opposing thrusters, making it much easier to balance thrust for slick maneuvers and epic barrel rolls.
Second idea: ASTEROID INDICATORS PLEASE
In the navigator menu, all Unknown objects are shown with the same square symbol to the left of the text. This is extremely annoying because objects automatically sort based on distance, so as the player is scouting the system and scanning objects, the list sorts and each object must be checked one-by-one yet again so that a valuable Unknown object is not missed in mistaking it for an asteroid. The information is already available to the player - select the object then select Lock Destination and the object type shows on the left hand holographic display. I think in this case this inconvenience goes beyond "rugged space sim feel" into silly and pointless irritation territory. An asteroid symbol in my opinion is much more reasonable.
First idea: HUD Widgets
The other night I was on a long exploration marathon when I suddenly remembered I needed to check the time and get to bed at a decent one. The thought hit me that it'd be cool to have a clock on the HUD. Prior to that night I was in combat and thought the HUD definitely needs numerical angle indicators for ship rotation, and possibly even indicators to show the status of each thruster. This would help with no-flight assist combat, and let's be honest, in real life there would be a wealth of such information in a space fighter.
Then I realized that player modification could be a cool feature. I understand this could be a monumental effort, but what if selected ship and game information could be provided to players via a read-only interface so that players could create their own HUD "widgets"?
Community widget creations could make the above two ideas (clock and thruster/orientation info) a relatively simple creation for players. As can be seen from the mods world, community development always creates great ideas, so I wouldn't be surprised if HUD enhancements were so amazing that they actually went beyond convenience and improved core gameplay. Imagine how much more competitive PvP could be if an indicator showed relative power from opposing thrusters, making it much easier to balance thrust for slick maneuvers and epic barrel rolls.
Second idea: ASTEROID INDICATORS PLEASE
In the navigator menu, all Unknown objects are shown with the same square symbol to the left of the text. This is extremely annoying because objects automatically sort based on distance, so as the player is scouting the system and scanning objects, the list sorts and each object must be checked one-by-one yet again so that a valuable Unknown object is not missed in mistaking it for an asteroid. The information is already available to the player - select the object then select Lock Destination and the object type shows on the left hand holographic display. I think in this case this inconvenience goes beyond "rugged space sim feel" into silly and pointless irritation territory. An asteroid symbol in my opinion is much more reasonable.